For 3,000 years, the lion sculptures of Syria’s Ain Dara stood as testaments to the Iron Age. Syrian and Kurdish authorities have blamed the damage squarely on Ankara’s nearly two-week offensive on Afrin, a Kurdish-controlled pocket of northwest Syria that borders Turkey. Perched on a hilltop in northern Syria, the neo-Hittite temple of Ain Dara dates back to the Aramaic era from around 1,300 to 700 BC, and is named after a village located in Afrin.

Turkey on Monday intensified its offensive against Kurdish militia targets in Syria as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed there would be no stepping back in a campaign that has stoked concern among Ankara’s allies and neighbours. The Turkish military on Saturday launched operation “Olive Branch”, its second major incursion into Syrian territory during the seven-year civil war. The operation, where Turkish war planes and artillery are backing a major ground incursion launched with Ankara-backed Syrian rebels and Turkish tanks, aims to oust the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia from its enclave of Afrin.

A neighbor who was arrested in November after an attack on Republican Sen. Rand Paul outside his Kentucky home plans to pleads guilty to a felony charge of assaulting a member of Congress, his lawyer said Friday.

DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan State University trustee on Saturday called for the university president to quit over the school's handling of the sexual assault scandal involving former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.